1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a network information searching apparatus which is connected to a plurality of information processing apparatuses on a network through the network and is used to search information required by the user from information managed and held in each of the information processing apparatuses and also relates to a method for such an apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
In case of searching desired information of the user from information managed and held by a plurality of computers on a network, it is necessary to repetitively execute an operation to obtain the information and an operation to confirm the contents of the obtained information until necessary information or information including the necessary information is obtained. That is, it is necessary to repetitively execute an operation for accessing from a computer of the user through the network to a server program operating on the computer connected to the network and for obtaining information in accordance with a procedure corresponding to the server program after accessing, an operation for reading the contents of the obtained information and confirming whether the necessary information is included in the information or not, and an operation for getting next information if the necessary information is not included in the obtained information.
In a case of searching necessary information from information of a page construction which is managed by a WWW (World Wide Web) system constructed by a WWW program operating on a computer connected to the internet and is logically linked by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), the necessary information is searched by repeating operations such that the contents of an arbitrary page in information of the page construction managed are read, if the necessary information does not exist in the page, characters or a figure, namely, what is called an anchor concerned with a URL of a page which may include the necessary information at a page that is at present opened is clicked by a mouse, a corresponding next page is displayed, and the contents of this page are read.
An example of the operations in a case of searching necessary information from the information managed by the WWW system will now be described with reference to FIG. 14. FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the operation example in case of searching the necessary information from the information managed by the conventional WWW system.
For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the contents of an arbitrary page 8101 in information of a page construction managed by a plurality of WWW servers 81, 82, . . . , and 8n are read. If the necessary information does not exist in this page, characters or a figure, that is, an anchor 8101-1 here concerned with a URL which may include the necessary information at this page is clicked, so that a page 8102 is displayed. The user reads the contents of the page 8102. When the user confirms that the information which is needed by the user does not exist in the page 8102 in a manner similar to the above operation, characters or a figure concerned with the URL of the page which may include the necessary information is clicked by the mouse, thereby displaying the next page.
However, in a case of searching the necessary information from the information managed by the WWW system mentioned above, as characters or a figure concerned with the URL of the page which may include the necessary information at the page that is at present opened, the user may subjectively decide which characters or figure should be selected. The user cannot know the relations among the pages. Therefore, it is necessary to repeat the operations many times, and the user is forced to read unnecessary information other than the object for a period of time until the necessary information is searched. Much surplus labor and surplus working time are required for the operation by the page including the necessary information is found.